Postal Service
the regulation of communication between different parts of a country, or different countries, including especially the forwarding and delivering of letters, newspapers and small packages, and the establishment of a registry system for the transfer of money and the transaction of other financial business. In some countries the use of the telephone and the telegraph forms a part of the postal service. Though letter conveyance is the primary work of the postoffice, many other branches of business have been assumed by it. The word "post" has its particular application from the posts, or stages, at which on the roads of the Roman empire couriers were maintained for the purpose of conveying news and despatches.
Postal Union. - Under the terms of a treaty concluded at Berne, Oct. 9, 1874, the object of which was to secure uniformity in the treatment of correspondence, and the simplification of accounts, as well as the reduction of rates within certain limits, and whose provisions were carried into operation generally July 1, 1875, the whole of Europe, the United States, Egypt, British India, and all the colonies of France were at the outset, or shortly thereafter, included in the union and many other countries and colonies have since joined it. The international accounts in respect of postages are based on a month's return of correspondence taken every third year.
United States. The beginnings of a postal service in the United States date Photo, Brown Brothers A PINEAPPLE PLANTATION IN AUSTRALIA Enc. Vol. 7-p. 324 © Underwood & Underwood